I thought I’d post this photo of the chandelier in my in-laws’ house. This was custom-ordered by my father-in-law. It is an awesome piece of metal and glass, but it’s a bit heavy for our taste.

My husband went to Columbus Alternative High School, where many of his friends were involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism. I can see many of these friends in pre-17th century garb dancing below this chandelier, with “Greensleeves” as the soundtrack.

We have been consulting with family members to determine who will get this when we take it down and install a lighter replacement. I believe that we’ve found the one who will truly appreciate and care for this piece in perpetuity, but we need to confirm the transfer of goods with my father-in-law first.

We’ll follow the journey of this chandelier, from its removal and replacement to a posting of the piece with its new owner. Stay tuned!

I spent most of the afternoon at the Ingham house, pulling out nails, screws and anchors from the master bedroom, then starting to patch holes and prepare for painting.

This was after my “warm-up” day yesterday. I spent much of the three hours then just walking from room to room and assessing what all needed to be done, feeling pretty overwhelmed. Decided at the end of that extremely unproductive time that I should probably just stay put in one room and not leave it until it’s finished. That’s what I did today, and it worked.

There’s always a pregnant pause when you pull out a deeply embedded piece of metal from a plaster wall. Plaster makes a crumbling, coming-apart noise that is not so comforting. I had some worries about a wall just disintegrating like a mummy that’s been left in the pyramid too long.

While hoping that the plaster would splinter off less often, I thought: Wow, my in-laws hung up a lot of stuff in their bedroom. I guess you don’t think about that until you have to prep for painting. How many of these screws and nails should I leave up, for the stuff my daughter will want to hang? I left about 1/4 of them in.

Then, it was time to spackle. This time I used the joint compound provided by my husband. Much wetter than the marshmallowy stuff I’m more used to. I followed all of the directions, letting it dry enough and anticipating shrinkage, before reapplying a second coating.

Realized several hours later that I have a big stripe of joint compound on my parka. Nice.

Next weekend: Sanding, and more joint compound in the hallway and office.